More to Life than Food
by granolabox
Summary: A story about a cute, young chef who moves to the islands to find ingredients and a young farmer anxious to start a new life on the islands... i fail at summaries
1. The Chef and the Farmer

**My first Fanfic~ Enjoy!**

**(Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon or anything)**

The sky was a gorgeous blue, spotted with white fluffy clouds. The weather was nice in spring, and Chelsea's turnips were actually growing. She sighed and glanced at the space where her barn and chicken coop were supposed to be. "Gee, thanks Gannon, for the lovely furnished buildings," Chelsea muttered. Then she walked down the path to Verdure Island, finished with her work for the day.

"Chelsea! Over here!" Elliot called waving at her from a distance. His nasally voice rang loud and clear through the silent morning.

_Just ignore him_, Chelsea thought, pretending she didn't notice him running at her. It was her 2nd year on Sunshine Islands, and she was usually good at making friends. For example, without trying she had managed to get Elliot to constantly annoy her. He was nice and all, but not exactly her 'type.'

Oddly enough, her best friends weren't exactly...normal. But before she went to visit them, Chelsea decided to go see Lanna, who was always caught up with the news of the islands. Speaking of which, here she came running down the path,

"Chelsea, hi!" Lanna sang in her high voice. She squeezed Chelsea and gasped. "Oh, Chels, you heard the news, right? There's a new villager! I was so excited because we never meet new people so I just had to find you and tell you and lemme tell you, I am out of breath because this morning, I was fishing when I heard the news so I had to shove it all it my bag and-"

"Lanna! Slow down. We have a new villager? Who is it?" Chelsea barely managed to squeeze in through Lanna's constant flow of words.

"Well..." She finally paused to think. "Maybe you should see for yourself. It's more exciting that way. Okay, catcha later!" She continued to practice singing, skipping away. Chelsea stared after the strange girl. If Chelsea was a cartoon, she would have a sweatdrop going down the back on her head. Of course, everyone was pretty weird in these strange islands.

Chelsea continued down the path past Taro's house and noticed something different. The plain, vacant house that was situated on the corner now had a purple roof with a large fork and knife above the door.

"Oh thank goodness, maybe it's a new restaurant!" Chelsea laughed. She was so tired of the same meal every day. She always ordered some sort of noodle dish at he diner because they were filling and cheap. When she first moved here, she had no money and Nick had offered her free lunch for a week. He was quiet, but very nice. Without him, Chelsea would have only had the herbs off the ground to eat. (Without animals, her budget was sort of low.) Chelsea walked up to the strange building and opened the door. "Hello?" She called.

It was a huge kitchen, full of pots and pans and other interesting untensils. The walls were lined with silver cabinets full of various spices and ingredients. "Maybe it's one of those fancy chinese restaurants where they cook in front of you?" She wondered.

"Ahh, hello!" A loud voice called out. Chelsea looked around, and saw nothing. Then, a blonde boy walked out from behind a door. He had long golden locks of hair, but he was unmistakingly a boy. But the more noticable thing was his tiny purple suit, complete with a top hat and long coat. Even his eyes were purple, which was very unusual. "And who do I have the pleasure of meeting?"

Chelsea, still slightly shocked, stuttered,"Oh, u-uhm, I'm Chelsea."

"Chelsea, hm? I'm Pierre, the youngest chef from the famous Gourmet family!" He laughed. His voice was quite arrogant, but cute at the same time. She was slightly shocked at his figure;most Gourmets were rather...big from all the eating and cooking, whereas this young man was short and skinny.

"Oh. So...Is this your house? I'm so sorry for barging in, I thought it was a restaurant, and I'm starving..." Chelsea trailed off, interrupted by his hearty laugh.

"Splendid! I've been waiting to try a new dish! Come sit, and I will start on your meal right away!" Pierre smiled as he skipped off torward his enormous kitchen.


	2. Nick's Diner

Chelsea quietly sat down at the square table in Pierre's house. She looked around, not finding anything else to do. The entire place was pretty much just a big kitchen, a table, and a separate room; probably a bedroom. Chelsea tapped her fingers impatiently-it had almost been a half hour. She got up and walked over to the kitchen, where she saw Pierre beaming proudly. "Ah, Chelsea! I've just finished. Help me carry these to the table, if you will." He grabbed three dishes with rounded tops over them, and began toward the table.

"Uhm, okay," Chelsea said as she picked up a few more plates. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Pierre fumbling around with the dishes. Then he toppled over, unable to balance the food in his arms. A huge crash made Chelsea put back the plates and run over to the sound. "Pierre! Are...are you okay?" He was quite a mess; the dishes were spilt all over him and one of the metal tops rested over his face. He suddenly sat up straight and shook out his hair, which was covered in spaghetti sauce and noodles. Chelsea couldn't help but stifle a giggle, he looked just like a little boy. His face was red and scrunched up as if he were about to cry. Chelsea smiled and helped him up and began to pull lettuce leaves off of the young man.

"Ahem! That's quite enough!" Pierre snapped. He fixed his top hat and brushed himself off, still covered with various types of food. "Now if you'll excuse me, I must go wash off." Pierre tried to stand up tall as he walked away, but he was still a good few inches shorter than Chelsea.

"I was only trying to help..."Chelsea mumbled as he walked away. Then she turned her head, stood up and walked out. That was rude of him, she thought angrily. Her stomach growled, and she walked over to the diner. "Hey, Nick," she called, walking over to the front counter. "Can I have some Curry Noodles?"

"Course, Chels." He walked back into the kitchen, leaving her alone at the counter. She smiled when Lily walked in and sat down next to her. Lily was one of her good friends on the islands, ever since she arrived. She could never dress casually; always the long red kimono with the fancy bead things in her hair and the long gloves.

"Goood afternoon, Chelsea," Lily said. "How are you today?" Nick stuck his head out of the kitchen door, and Lily ordered some exotic thing Chelsea had never heard of.

"All right, I guess," Chelsea sighed, then folded her arms. "It's that stupid new kid. He's a jerk!" Lily sat and listened carefully while Chelsea told her what happened. Then she opened her eyes.

"Chelsea-have you ever considered that you were overreacting?" She asked. "I understand that was rude of him, but he has an enormous sense of pride. He hates it when people help him, trust me, the same sort of thing happened when I met him. But he's new here, maybe you should give him a break?"

Chelsea growled. "Lily! How could you take his side?" She turned away and Lily groaned.

"Really, Chelsea, you two could be twins. Neither one wants to admit they're wrong." Her black eyes wandered over to Chelsea, who was still sitting there with her arms folded. Lily laughed, and Chelsea whipped her head around. "Oh no, it's nothing," Lily smirked. "You are definately right, no doubt about it. This is completely his problem and in no way involves you. No ma'am, you are NOT overreacting." Nick brought out her foreign tea, which Lily took a sip of and left, carrying it with her. Chelsea calmly ate her noodles, which gave her time to think. When she finished, she reached in her pocket to pay Nick-but it was empty. Then she reached in her other pocket, but it was also empty.

"Crap," she muttered. Then she looked up at Nick apologetically. "I-"

"I'll pay for it," a voice called from across the diner. Pierre walked up to the counter and placed some money on the table. Then he lowered his head and turned to Chelsea. "I-I'm sorry...I shouldn't have snapped at you. You were only trying to help, and I yelled at you..." His hat covered his face, but Chelsea could see his purple eyes looking at her.

"No, no, I'm sorry," Chelsea said. "I shouldn't have gotten mad at you. You were trying to cook me lunch!" She looked at the little chef; all his pride had disappeared and had been replaced with shame.

"Chelsea?" Pierre asked innocently. She turned to meet his gaze. "W-would you like to come back tomorrow night? I can make you dinner," He stuttered, his face turning red furiously. Chelsea was shocked by his kind offer, but happy nonetheless.

"Oh, sure," Chelsea replied, smiling at the young man's shyness. He had only invited to cook dinner for her, yet he could barely speak. His eyes brightened and he beamed widely.

"Okay, then! See you tomorrow!" Pierre practically hopped out of the restaurant, his blonde locks bouncing behind him. Talk about a mood change, Chelsea thought. In the corner, Lanna and Denny were talking. Or you could say, Lanna was talking and Denny was listening. The diner was actually quite crowded this evening; Will was in the far left corner, and Eliza and Charlie were in the lower right corner. They were so cute together, Chelsea thought. Then she decided to go home because it had been a long day.


	3. Mushrooms and Magic

**~Chapter 3~**

**Even though I'm sure nobody's reading this, oh well :) Enjoy!**

Chelsea grumbled and fell on the floor. Her dog, Monsieur, ran up and slobbered all over her face. "I get it, Monsieur, I'm awake!" Chelsea moaned and sat up. She didn't do much to get ready; she simply changed out of her pajamas into her jeans and shirt and tied up her red bandana. Chelsea walked out the door and realized it was raining. She smiled to herself because she didn't have to water her plants and had plenty of time to visit her friends.

"Kirk! To Mystic Islands, chop chop!" Chelsea clapped her hands as she walked up to the puny canoe. He merely nodded and began rowing. When they arrived, he sat there and sighed.

"Gah, you always take forever here," he grumbled. Chelsea glared at him, they hopped out of the boat. She skipped happily to the little pink house on her left and walked in.

"Hellooo," Chelsea sang, walking to the center. A small girl crawled out of her green bed and shuffled her feet over to Chelsea. Her hair was done in two buns and she was, as always, wearing her little witch's robe.

"Why do you always have to come so eeaaarrrlllyyy," Witchkins mumbled, but then she smiled and hugged Chelsea. Chelsea laughed and grabbed her hand.

"Come on outside," she pulled the girl out the front door, where numerous amounts of frogs were hopping around the little bear-shaped island. Witchkins' eyes lit up and she ran over to play with them. Chelsea smiled and headed back inside to find Witch Princess.

"You'd really rather play with that old bag?" Witchkins inquired, but Chelsea simply shook her head and closed the door behind her. Witch Princess had magically appeared out in the center of the room, mixing with her cauldron. Who knows what's in that thing, Chelsea shivered. It would probably be tested on her later.

"Welcome, Chelsea," Witch Princess announced. "Have you come to be my experiment today?" Her long, wavy blond hair hung over her black robe and purple dress.

Chelsea shook her head. "Err, no, I just wanted to talk." Witch Princess' face saddened as she pulled a cup of green liquid from her big, black pot. She stuck out her lower lip and widened her red eyes at Chelsea.

Chelsea groaned. "Fine, just this one." Witch happily handed her the cup and anxiously waited for her response. Chelsea winced at the strange mix, and began to feel strange. "Witch Princess..." She suddenly fell to the floor. Then Witch looked over her.

"Chelsea...Are you alright?" Her voice, though, did not show any signs of sympathy or concern. Chelsea groaned and glared at Witch.

"Wh...What is this?" She gasped. She grabbed Witch's ankle with her right arm and noticed it was turning purple! Then she blacked out.

"Well...I"m not sure. I have the antidote...but this is very interesting." Her eyes widened as she saw Chelsea's face turn purple as well. Then Witch sighed as she saw Chelsea slowly transform into a boy. "How boring," She muttered as she lifted Chelsea and shook her. "Wake up, kid." Chelsea moaned and rolled her head.

"Wha...?" Chelsea slowly opened her eyes and looked down at herself. She saw her purple outfit and black boots, and even saw her blond curls. Chelsea began blushing and said, "Witch...I want the antidote. _Now_." Her own voice surprised her; it was quite demanding and loud. Witch smiled and handed her the orange liquid, which Chelsea quickly chugged. She felt herself transform back to herself and she sighed. "I'm gonna go, Witch Princess. Later." Her face was still flushed when she walked outside and hurried down the path. Once she made it to the other island, Chelsea picked up a Moondrop flower and tossed it in the pond. A swirl of green sparkles danced in the water, and then the Harvest Goddess appeared.

"Ah, Chelsea. Thank you for the offering. So how are you doing?" At first, the Harvest Goddess would only thank Chelsea for her offering and leave, but now they were friends so she liked to talk.

"Fine," Chelsea smiled. The Harvest Goddess frowned to herself and sighed.

"I'm sorry, Chelsea, but my boss is calling...I have Goddess duties to perform. Ta-ta!" And just like that, she was gone. Chelsea felt lonely at first, but then got up and walked to the boat. Kirk cocked his head.

"Who were you talking to?" Chelsea looked at him and laughed. He had no idea of the magic people; nobody did.

"Mushroom Islands, please." He rowed the boat and made idle conversation on the way there. Then Chelsea hopped off and walked torward the middle. A dark man was walking around with a spear. He looked at Chelsea and then grinned widely.

"Chelsea. You have come in time for hunting!" Shea was Chelsea's other good friend. He couldn't speak well, but he was very kind. His hair drooped from the rain, and the stripes on his face were dripping.

"Shea! Hi!" Chelsea hugged him and reached in her rucksack. "Here, I brought you something." She handed him the large fish she had caught on the ride there. Shea looked at her and slightly blushed. Then he laughed.

"Chelsea make good warrior. But there is no game today..." He sighed. "Mushroom gathering, instead." They walked around the island with Truffle, Chelsea's pig, to find different kinds of mushrooms. Then Chelsea noticed that it was getting dark outside.

"Goddess! I forgot!" She started running and turned to wave at Shea. "Sorry, I have to go. See ya tomorrow!" He waved back and continued his hunting. When she got to Verdure Island, Chelsea ran torward her house. In her hurry, she slipped in some mud. Then she sniffed while she lay there in the pouring rain. Suddenly sparkling purple light swirled in front of her.

"Chels, really?" Witch Princess sighed and brought up her hands. She muttered something and then Chelsea was suddenly standing, clean and dry. She also had on fresh clothes. "Have fun on your 'date', kid," Witch laughed and transported away. Chelsea was happy and mad at what had just happened.

"It's not a _date_," she growled to herself, but then Chelsea decided to just accept her friend's help and walked over to the little purple house.


End file.
